Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1884 — HENRY CLAY’S DAUGHTER. [ARTICLE]

HENRY CLAY’S DAUGHTER.

The Sad Romance That Had Its Birth Beside t he Grave. Just to the right of the entrance to a small, illy-kept, almost unusued graveyard at Lebanon, Ohio, —a little cityfamed the state over as being the home for yeats of the most gifted orator of his tim'e, Thomas Corwin,—is a stained and moldy stone sarcophagus, less than three feet in height and six feet in length, inclosed by a rude fence of barbed-wire, stretched upon clumsy, unhewn posts. The yard bears every evidence of neglect. The ground around it is sunken, and the grass and briers clamber uj > the dingy stone tomb’s side andishow a disposition to cover it from view. And yet beneath those rough slabs of stone lie the remaing pf a noble young girl, upon whom in life was bestowed the extravagant love of one of America's grandest-minded men ; a young girl whose ultimate death saddened the life of one of the country's broadest and widest statesmen. The neglected grave contains tiie remains of a beautiful woman, over whose resting-place a fitting monument should be erected by the people whom her father’s brilliant talent so ably served. But it is neglected, uncared for, and almost unknown save to a few outside of Lebanon’s lirai s.

It is unpleasant to think that the offspring of such a noble parentage is thus permitted to suffer long years of almost utter neglect among a people who know the story of her birth and distinguished father’s merits, but true it is that in that humble grave lies the -remains of a daughter of Henry i laythe man whom Kentucky honors above all men; the man who labored so grandly in the interest of the nation, and who was within a step of the Presidential chair. Around that little grave clusters a mournful, romantic history. Henry Clay was one of the four prominent presidential candidates in 1824, striving for election against three other candidates —John Quincy Adams, Jackson, and Crawford, He received thirty-seven electoral votes for the position. >

The Electoral College failed to make a choice, and when the work of electing a President devolved upon the House of Representative, Clay, seeing that he could not win himself, carried his strength over to Adams, and secured the latter’s election. In March of the following year, when Adams organized his Cabinet, he Tendered Cl ay dim Premier’s portfolio. Clay Went to Washington, and after he had familiarized with the duties of Secretary of State, lie returned on a visit to his home in Kentucky, to see his family, among whom was a beautiful and intellectual daughter, Eliza, whom he particularly loved. Eliza at that time had just turned her 12th year, but she was wise and womanly for her years, and it was one of the principal objects of Clay's long and tedious journey to Kentucky to bring Eliza to Washington with him on his return. Travel in those days was not the easy, luxurious affair that it is now. The cumbersome stage-coach was the only public conveyance that traversed the pikeS, and the trip from Kentucky to Washington City was both long and wearying. Henry Clay and his daughter started for the Capital from Lexington, Kentucky, early in August, Miss Clay was father delicate physically, and found traveling by coach a very distressing affair, The hotel fare on the route did not agree with her, and the various changes and discomforts she experienced brought on a malady—inflammation of the bowels, I believe—that became so ala ming when Lebanon was reached that a stop was made here and medical aid summoned to attend the young lady at her hotel. She grew worse instead of better, and one night, after a delirious flight, followed by a beief period of consciousness, she died in her father’s arms. It was impossible for Mr. Clay to return home with the remains of his dead child, so it was determined to bury her here temporarily. The intention was to remove her remains to Kentucky, and place them in the family burialplace. Mr. Clay, sad-hearted and weighed down by grief, completed his journey to Washington. His busy and not untroubled life at the Capital, as Premier of A lams’ Cabinet, is a matter of public histpry. The grass over his daughter’s grave, and the snows of two winters, covered its meanly appearance with spotless mantles of white, and yet no move was made to have the remains transferred to Kentucky. In the third summer, I think, this rough sarcophagus was erected by Mr. Clay, who seemed to have determined not to disturb his daughter’s rest. (0.) Leader. ,